Friday, August 31, 2007

"It's a me .... Al Qaeda!"

(CNN) -- A U.S. military plane carrying three U.S. senators and one member of the House of Representatives came under rocket fire Thursday night and had to make evasive maneuvers as it left Baghdad for Amman, Jordan.

"We were shot at by three rockets," Shelby said in a statement Friday. "It was dark as the dickens, and I was looking out the small window on the plane and I saw a shell. We saw them, they were popping, and we saw the flares."

The flares are part of the missile avoidance system aboard the C-130 aircraft. The heat from the flares are a countermeasure to attract rockets that have heat-seeking guidance systems.

Shelby added that the plane "started maneuvering, changing directions, shaking us all around, and then I saw another shell near the plane. It's a hostile area, it was a tough area, but the flight crew was very professional; they really did a tremendous job."